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Airline Sues 3 Ex-Partners

The AMR Corporation, the parent of American Airlines, has accused the Hilton Hotels Corporation, the Marriott Corporation and Budget Rent-A-Car of undermining a 1988 agreement to develop a computer reservations network to serve all the travel industry.

In a lawsuit filed in state court in Dallas on Friday, AMR accused its three former partners of trying to twist the Confirm reservation network to their own benefit.

The four companies were developing Confirm through a $125 million partnership. Confirm was envisioned as a system that would enable travelers to book airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars.

The technology was intended to be generic, enabling the partners to market it to other travel industry customers. But AMR contends that Hilton, Marriott and Budget provided only company-specific data, making integration impossible.